Infrared sensing devices are well known and are now utilized in a wide variety of applications including night vision devices, enhanced aviation vision systems, fire detection, surveillance and security, search and rescue devices, and even medical imaging and diagnostics. Current state-of-the-art devices in this field include bolometers which are composed of semiconductors using vanadium oxide as the active component. These devices can provide effective room temperature infrared detection with a sensitivity in the 8–15 micron range. Devices currently on the market that deal with infrared detection technology include the Spectrum/RM of Texas Infrared Inc., the Thermacam® from FLIR Systems, and the PalmIR PRO from Raytheon. Still other devices in this field include those which utilize PtSi and measure infrared radiation by means of changes in capacitance, and those which utilize PbSe and InSb which are photoconductive detectors which operate at room temperature with about a 20% change in response per degree Centigrade.
Unfortunately, the great limitation on the potential usefulness and applicability of current infrared devices is their great expense. Currently, cameras in this field such as the ones described above have costs in the tens of thousands of dollars, and prices typically range from about $10,000 to $50,000 depending on range and detection sensitivity. It is clear that there exists a distinct need to provide technology by which a low-cost system of infrared detection can be obtained so that the potential benefits of infrared detection, such as medical imaging and search and rescue devices, can become affordable and thus more commonly available so that the public can benefit from such devices. It is also clear that there exists a need for providing improved hybrid organic/inorganic nanostructures utilizing photo polymerization which can allow for enhanced optical reflectivity and the creation of holographic or other optical gratings which can be used to form a broad array of biosensors and other sensing devices.
Previously, it has been recognized in nature that certain proteins apparently are configured to have conformational shapes which allow a particular function when one set of conditions is present, yet another shape under different conditions or stimuli which provides for a different function. An example of this conformationally changing shape is the “coiled-coil” type of protein which confers a variety of functional capabilities, including enabling proteins such as myosin to function in the contractile apparatus associated with muscle cells and associated non-muscle structures. One such conformationally changing protein appears to be the TlpA protein encoded by the virulence plasmid of Salmonella bacteria which is an α-helical protein that forms an elongated coiled-coil homodimer. A number of studies regarding this protein appear to show that it operates in the bacteria as a temperature-sensing gene regulator. However, it has never been disclosed or suggested that this protein, or active fragments therefrom, could be utilized in devices which could monitor and detect heat in the form of infrared radiation. There is thus a distinct need in the field to develop devices which can make use of the thermal conformation shifts in proteins such as TlpA and its active fragments so as to detect infrared radiation.